


Into The Fleet

by cardworkMagician



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Military Science Fiction, No Longer Being Written, Science Fiction, abandoned work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-25
Packaged: 2017-11-29 14:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/687984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cardworkMagician/pseuds/cardworkMagician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate universe where Karkat, Terezi, Eridan, Vriska, and Sollux make it into the Alternian Navy, and all on the same ship, no less. Naturally, this will not go well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enlisting

Karkat had never been so far from home in his life

Weirdly enough, that was the strangest part about being plucked from Alternia, disguising himself as a greenblood, being piled in a steel crate with Vriska, Sollux, Eridan, and Terezi, launched into high-orbit, landing on Alternia's pink moon, being launched faster than light across the gulf of space, and ending up in orbit of a planet called Safehold. The other four had been, mercifally, silent the entire time; no one was sure if they were going to live through the next few minutes. Sollux and Vriska were probably both worried about their mutations; Terezi's blindness was hardly a good way to avoid culling. Eridan was confident but still quiet; Karkat figured he might be homesick, or worried about Feferi.

The tiny transport can the group had been piled into had no food, no recuperacoons; the psychic adults who'd launched them from a station built on Alternia's pink moon(the first adults any of the five had ever seen) had told them they'd only be "in transit" for a little under two hours.

It felt like a lot longer than that.

Karkat's eyes met Eridan's for a moment; Eridan raised an eyebrow at him, as if to ask "You wanna say somethin'?" Before Karkat could say anything, Vriska and Sollux both twitched, Vriska subtly, Sollux more noticeably.

"We're slowing down" Sollux said, lisping. Karkat couldn't tell; there were no windows to look out through, and he assumed the two had somehow sensed it. Vriska confirmed the thought a moment later.

"Psychic touch, someone's slowing this can down. Fiiiiiiiinally!" Everyone nodded in agreement at that. A moment later, there was a loud clank that reverbrated throughout the can, and suddenly gravity shifted its angle; there was a brief moment where the whole group were under doubled weight and Terezi fell, her cane clattering to the ground, before gravity adjusted to the new angle; Karkat felt the can shift, rolling a few degrees so down was down once again. "What was that?" He asked, annoyed, as he and Sollux reached down to help pick Terezi up. Vriska shrugged, not getting it; Terezi and Sollux shook their heads.

"Gravity generators." Eridan said. Karkat glanced at him. "There's some kinda machine to make gravity in the floor of this can, that's why we weren't floatin' that whole time. Since it felt like we just doubled for a bit, I'd say it stands to reason there's another one under us, meanin' we just docked with something." Karkat blinked, surprised at the logic behind that. He was distracted a moment later by the large panel in the side of the can suddenly hissing and flapping open. Just beyond it, leaning against a metal wall, was a tall tealblood troll with zig-zagging horns. He didn't look particularly old, maybe ten sweeps to the others' Eight, and was wearing a grey and black uniform Karkat assumed was the uniform of the Alternian Navy.

"'ello" The tealblood said. "Welcome, recruits, to the Alternian Imperial Navy. My name is Cadorn." Karkat was about to say something, some sort of greeting(it was his first official meeting with anyone from the Navy, after all) when Terezi stepped forward, having regained her balance and cane. "Terezi Pyrope, at your service." She said in her usual rasp, though she didn't cackle. The tealblood nodded and waved for the group to follow him. The five filed out; Karkat's first impression was that they were in some sort of massive hangar bay. Karkat's second impression was that there was a massive window behind them, which the pod must have come through somehow. Then he looked out the window.

Planets, when seen from above, don't look like little marbles; they glow, radiant, bright, shining so bright it can be hard to tell where the surface of the planet ends and the glow from the atmosphere beings. This planet was a mosaic of red landmasses and blue seas, with bright yellow clouds sprinkled throughout; a sliver of it was cast in nighttime, and that section glowed a dark, steady purple. The day side was radiant enough it made Karkat's eyes water. A black splinter stuck out from one continent, straight outwards into space, where it disappeared among the black background.

After he took in the planet, the second sight that graced Karkat's eyes was one made quite familiar to him from years of watching film; an Alternian Battlecruiser; a long set of docking arms extended from what Karkat had to assume was the space station he stood on, since one was on either side of the window.

"The planet Safehold" Cadorn said. "Gem of the Alternian Empire, our greatest Fortress-World." Vriska was staring out at the view, open-mouthed. Sollux was doing the same, hunching habitually. Terezi seemed to be taking a long whiff. Eridan was regarding the sight with less amazement than the others.  
"And the ship?" He inclined his head, gesturing with his chin towards the Battlecruiser.

"Battlecruiser Starborn. Docked at Sanctuary Station to re-arm and pick up new crewmembers. That's you five, by the way. An officer from the ship will be picking you up right about-oh here she is." Naturally, right as Cadorn(who Karkat assumed was there specifically to introduce new recruits to the fleet) spoke, a door slid open near the left of the two docking arms, and a tall seadweller woman stepped out, wearing the same uniform as Cadorn's but much more decorated; it was a grey tunic with zippered pockets on the chest, a high collar, and long sleeves, along with a set of black pants. There was a purple symbol embroidered on one pocket; a circle, a diagonal line streaking upward from it, and then a curved swoop from the top of the line. As the seadweller approached, Karkat spotted three brass swords pinned to her collar, and a single medal pinned to her chest. Her horns curved, swooping directly backwards, evocative of a swimbeast's dorsal fin. It took her almost a half minute to cross the threshold between the door she came out of and the steel pod the group had arrived in. In that time, Eridan did his best to hush the group and get them to stand at attention, though it hardly worked; Karkat thought about saluting and decided he didn't know how to do it properly. Eridan apparently did; as the seadweller approached, Eridan snapped to attention and gave her a crisp salute. A slight smile seemed to tug at the officer's lips.

"At ease, recruit," her voice was deeper than Karkat expected, and carried the same slight warble that Feferi and Eridan's voiced had; Karkat was forced to assume that was just what you sound like when you learn to talk underwater. Karkat's line of thought was interrupted when she spoke again. "I am Colonel Mikasa Korvas, infantry commander on the Starlord, and one of your new commanding officers. You five have survived the horrors of Alternia; you have been weighed, measured, and found worthy, for now. Follow me; the Captain meets each new recruit personally.”


	2. Assignments, Learning, and Mysteries

,

"Sit down, Mister Vantas." The captain said. The Captain-Karkat hadn't learned her name yet-was a tall blueblood woman; the most striking thing about her was her horns; they shared a root, but then each one split into three thin stalks with a sphere at the end of each about the size of a troll's eyeball. Karkat was transfixed by these absurd decorations for a moment, long enough that he took a bit to register the rest of her. Long hair, hanging loose down past her shoulders. Her uniform was all but bare of decorations, and looked like a color swap of what the Colonel had wore; grey bottom with a black top, and four tiny silver sailing ships on her collar, with a small silver chain visible under it. She was looking at a paper, probably some official report on something. Her eyes were filled in, bright cyan, a sight Karkat found quite disconcerting after never seeing it back on Alternia. The Captain gestured to a chair across from her metal desk; it was lightly cusioned, and clearly it collapsed to stow as small as possible. Karkat sat down on it gingerly, folding his hands in his lap and looking at the Captain. After a moment, she looked up at him.  


  


And froze.  
Karkat didn't know what had hit her, but all the color seemed to drain from her face in an instant. His first instinct was to look behind him, but there wasn't anything, and clearly she was looking at him.  


  

“Um, ma'am?” Karkat asked, very confused. The captain seemed to shake her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and then blinked, trying to regain her poise.  
“Nothing, Recruit.” She inhaled. “O-on the forms we had you fill out, you indicated you were interested in being a Threshecutiouner.” Karkat perked up internally. “I'm sorry to say that we have no such regiment aboard the Starlord. Nor...do I think that the infantry is the proper place for you.” Karkat cursed internally. A change in expression seemed to come over the captain; she'd looked perfectly neutral once she recovered from whatever shocked her, but now her look was closer to curiosity. She continued, “Before I do place you.” The Captain paused and reached into a drawer in her desk “I will have to take a blood sample,” she said, holding up a syringe. Suddenly, the brief moment of hope Karkat had had, that he might have been a Threshecutioner, and that he'd have a chance at living, shattered. He was certainly dead now. Grimacing, he stuck out his left arm and rolled up his sleeve The captain stepped around her desk, gravely, and pressed the needle into his arm, working the plunger, drawing out the bright, glistening candy red blood that Karkat had spent eight sweeps hiding. The blood that now was certain to condemn him to death. Karkat looked up into the Captain's face, not knowing what to expect. Disgust? Fear? Hatred?  


  

What he saw was something else entirely; the look of one who had finally found something she'd thought lost forever, or maybe thought would never be seen again. “WHAT?” Karkat asked, incredulous, shouting for the first time since he'd left Alternia. “JUST CULL ME ALREADY!” The Captain, amazingly, didn't do anything of the sort; she frantically shushed Karkat, as if the secret was worth hiding, rather than worth spilling this freak's blood across the ship for the entertainment of all. That was the moment when Karkat decided that she must know something, or expect something about him. Something that-wait is she reaching into her shirt?  


  

Yes, Karkat decided, the Captain was most definitely reaching into her shirt.  


  

This made perfect sense.  


  

Definitely.  


  

Even though, in hindsight, it took less than a second, when Karkat experienced it he was quite certain that it took the Captain a full minute, but eventually she managed to reach in and grab the necklace that he'd spotted around her neck earlier. Hanging from it, Karkat recognized, was a small iron pendant in the shape of a Cancer symbol. Karkat's symbol. He blinked. He looked at the Captain, confused. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the pendant again, before looking back to the Captain.  


  

“WHAT? WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT?” Karkat was less shouting, more projecting, back to his natural tone of speech after his stint being subdued. He idly wondered why he'd even done it, but the thought was gone from his mind almost before he'd had it. The Captain just looked at him, confused.  


  

“You...you really don't know the story of your blood and symbol.”  


  

“THERE'S A STORY?” The captain looked down at the floor for a moment, and sighed.  


  

“I never even thought to meet you, Mr. Vantas. Now that I have, I find it's not just meeting you, but introducing you to who you really are.”  


  

“I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE EVEN TALKING ABOUT ANYMORE.” Karkat had looked away from the captain, his eyes locked on the pendant she still held. The Captain glanced at him, then sat down and pulled a husktop from her sylladex; she fiddled with it for a moment, and someone's voice emanated from the speakers  


  

“Kalrek here, Captain.”  


  

“Hold the other recruits; this interview is getting rather...personal.” The captain's voice held a completely different tone from what it had before, a tinge of what Karkat could only call 'sultry'. The troll on the other end chuckled audibly and answered.  


  

“Understood, Capain. Hope he enjoys himself. Over and out.” The moment the troll disconnected, the Captain turned back to look at Karkat, simultaneously pulling something else from her Sylladex; Karkat spotted two symbols on a thick leatherbound book. The first was a cyan circle with a perfect quarter of the circle torn out.

  

The second was Karkat's own symbol, in the same dull iron grey. Karkat was sweating as he looked at it, and the captain obviously noticed.  


  

“Relax Karkat. I am going to tell you a tale, about rebellion, society, religion, and about your ancestor.”  
\---  
Eridan was studying  


  

Generally, studying for a Troll consisted of Schoolfeeding; the simple act of eating infogrubs. But as Eridan learned (at first to his frustration), the Starlord was not precisely at the tip of the Empress' Cullung Fork. It was an outdated ship, with over five hundred sweeps of service behind it. Its ancience lent it power; much scientific knowledge had been lost over the centuries, and the Starlord was in a fight on even footing with the most modern Battlecruisers. But this power came at a cost of comfort to the crew; Starlord had no space for growing infogrubs. Its crew had to learn the old fashioned way.  


  

Eridan had always enjoyed learning about history, conquerers from the past of Alternia. Now he read about their astronomical matches; the first and most famous was The /\dmiral, a troll from the early days of conquest whose title(quirk exempted) gave the name to the commanding rank in the Navy. Eridan had only briefly wondered why Colonel Mikasa had picked him out and demanded him as her apprentice; either it was because of his blood, or because she'd spotted his talents as a commander. She had assigned him quarters on the upper decks of the ship, a short walk to the bridge or the galley. There he was, his single room, which was utterly tiny compared to what he'd lived in on Alternia, lying on his foam bed with a book propped on his waist and his head against a cushion. The book was titled "Early Conquerers of Space," Eridan read;  


  

Not long after the /\dmiral had died, the first phase of expansion ended; in these days her glorious Condesce had not risen to the throne, and her predecessor, the Imperial, turned the Navy's aims from conquereing new territory to securing the three hundred lightsweeps around Alternia which had been conquered. The necessity of this was proven when a famous Cyanblood commodore, known as the Renegade, began preaching of a cult against the hemospectrum. Her flotilla's captains followed her, out of admiration, misguided sympathy for the cause, or simple fear. The Renegade's flotilla attacked and captured a colony ship. It was diverted to a new, hidden planet, while the Renegade's Flotilla was forced to contend with the fleet that had been sent to hunt it down. The Renegade, for all her blasphemy, was an excellent commander; in the campaign to capture her, she first demonstrated the power of conical kill-fields and high-velocity fighter bombers, tactics still in use tonight. The fleets sent to destroy her were not powerless against her inventive tactics, but the Imperials averaged five ships lost for every three of the Renegade's ships killed. Eventually, the Renegade's flotilla was hunted down by the newly risen Condesce; she pursued the Renegade(now calling herself the Colonist) to the world she'd stolen and met the Renegade in single combat. She captured the Renegade and imprisoned her on Alternia, burning the Renegade's world in the process. For technical diagrams of the battles in the Renegade campaign, see appendice D. For blueprints of the ships used in the campaign, see appendice D-2.  
Eridan didn't bother to read the Appendices; his objective was to gain a general idea of space combat, not an utter mastery(that was likely Vriska's job) Colonel Mikasa apparently thought it necessary to have a basic understanding of the Navy before learning about the Infantry.  


  

"Heeeeeeeey!" Someone said; Eridan glanced up, and spotted Vriska at his door. He gave her a halfhearted glare, not bothering to close the book; she stood in a pair of grey pants and a black tunic, a single silver ship sat on her collar. "Cadet Serket, reporting for duty!" Her tone was laced with sarcasm, exactly what he expected from her when dealing with him.  


  

"Water you talkin' about?" Eridan asked. "Recruit Ampora. I don't outrank you, bother somebody else."  


  

"What? The Seadweller, Mr. High and Mighty, doesn't outrank a lowly blueblood?"  


  

"I will soon. You're set for the Command track?" Vriska preened, swishing her hair behind her.  


  

"Apprentice to Captain Markha Rentav." She thumbed the silver ship on her collar. Eridan responded by jerking a thumb at the silver sword at his collar.  


  

"Command track. Apprenticed to Colonel Mikasa. Just you watch, I'll be a general before you know it." Vriska glared at him through her half-glasses, and Eridan had to wonder if her single eye would affect her career. She was about to retort when Karkat walked behind her, in the grey pants and black coat of a Naval rating, and glanced into Eridan's room; their eyes met, and a little jolt of understanding passed between the two; Eridan managed to wrap up "help me deal with spiderbitch so I can get back to work" into a single look, and Karkat understood. He glanced at the pin on Vriska's collar.  


  

"Apprentice to the captain?" He asked; he wasn't shouting, just projecting his voice, like he always did when he wasn't shouting(more common these days than when he'd been six) Vriska whirled around, her hair swinging an inch from his face, and she looked him up and down.  


  

"And what did you rate, crabby? I suppose they put you swabbing decks and chopping grubloaf down in the galley. I'll only say it once; slice it nice and thick, eight tenths of an inch per slice."  


  

"Actually" He said, pulling a paper from his sylladex, "Well, you ought to look for yourself," Karkat handed Vriska a piece of paper. Her one eye skimmed over it quickly, then widened, and reread the piece again.  


  

"This can't be right...it has you on the command track, as..." She paused for an annoyingly long time; Eridan counted eight seconds. "apprentice to the Captain."  


  

"Yeah, I asked her about that, seems she wants us both."  


  

"What the fuck?" Vriska demanded. "I guess she doesn't get that she doesn't need anyone but me. Well, I'll show her. Later(Eridan spelled it "l8er" in his head,) don't worry, she'll see where you belong before you can spit." Vriska turned tail and walked off down the corridor, out of Eridan's line of sight.  


  

"Thanks" Eridan said. Karkat glanced at him.  


  

"Hey, you may be awful, but everyone needs to unite against the spiderbitch. Great, this probably means I'll be working with her." Eridan raised his eyebrows.  


  

"That's goin' to blow. Why'd the captain want you?" Karkat's answer came instantly  


  

"No idea." Karkat's answer felt too quick; rehearsed. Eridan surmised that Karkat knew exactly why the captain wanted him, and wasn't telling Eridan. The seadweller shrugged and went back to his book. Karkat walked off, and thankfully closed Eridan's door as he did so. Eridan still wondered, but the question could wait for another night.  


  

He still had a lot to learn.  
\---  


  

Vriska was the best. Karkat wasn't.  


  

So why was Karkat here?  


  

Why was Karkat with Vriska and the captain, here in the Captain's office, sitting across from Ms. Rentav, when it should have just been Vriska and her?  


  

How did he get such prestige with her? Was he a psychic? Had he manipul8ed her? No, for all intents and purposes she seemed to be perfectly normal, and so did the captain. Vriska had been fuming since the captain called the duo to her office.  


  

"Miss Serket, if you are too distracted to learn the basics of command, perhaps you would do better as a fry cook in the galley." The captain was looking straight at her. Vriska turned and gave a salute.  


  

"Sorry, ma'am, preoccupied."  


  

"Don't be. Would you like me to repeat my question? Of course you would. In the event that you survive your first perigree of training, and, subject to my approval, earn a commission as third leiutenant on the Starborn, what purpose does that rank serve? Why not keep you on until you're ready to jump to second lieutenant? I remind you that the third leiutenant is the lowest ranked officer on the ship; you'd have no one to order around but enlisted men, and all the responsibilities of a command-grade officer. So why do we put you there?" Vriska grinned; she'd read the exact answer to this question in a bit of fiction back on Alternia,  


  

"To place us in the chain of command, Captain."  


  

"Good. Now, say that by some tragedy, all your superiors are wiped out. I die. My first officer dies. Chief Engineer Naynin dies. You. Are. It. There's no superior officer to get orders from, you're too far out to psicast to High Command, and you can't run. What do you do? Who do you talk to?" Vriska fell silent, thinking. "Come on now, the ship's under attack and the entire crew is looking towards you. Who do you ask for help?" The Captain only waited a half second more. "Too late; a computer panel exploded and shrapnel struck your brain. Vantas!" The captain turned to face Karkat, who'd been silent this entire time. "Who do you ask?"  


  

"Colonel Mikasa, ma'am."  


  

"Precisely; she's older than you, more experienced, been here longer, knows the ship and the crew better. She won't think you're stupid if you ask her, but she will think you're a foolhardy moron who's going to get us all killed if you don't ask her advice. Keep that in mind. Now;" Markha manifested something from her sylladex; two full reams of paper. "Technical diagrams of the Starlord, up to date with the latest repairs. Learn them, know them by heart. A captain knows her ship well enough to recite each and every bolt and weld, in her sleep, upside down, after being tortured. Get cracking. Dismissed."


End file.
